Kushina Uzumaki

Li Tong took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he spun around and looked behind him.

It was still forest, stretching as far as the eye could see...

"You won't find it," Chen He said, standing nearby in a mask.

Chen He was the only one left beside Li Tong. White Fang and Qingsuo didn't seem to have come out of the Anbu base.

"Come on. I'll get you out of here. Stay close and don't wander off, or you could be in danger." Chen He's voice came muffled from behind his mask. With that, he set off.

Li Tong followed close behind, constantly scanning his surroundings.

He wanted to know where they were. Wasn't the Anbu base inside Konoha? Nothing nearby looked familiar, and he had no idea where he was.

"I'll carry you. If we walk there slowly, we'll never get out of here." Chen He suddenly turned around and, without waiting for Li Tong to respond, grabbed him by the shoulder and took off.

Chen He was a jōnin!

He moved incredibly fast! An ordinary person's top speed was about ten meters per second, but a ninja—especially a jōnin like Chen He—could reach speeds beyond imagining. With his strength, he could ignore the terrain in this forest... Of course, he couldn't keep up his top speed while carrying someone, but he could still manage twenty or thirty meters per second.

A kilometer was only a little over half a minute's run for Chen He.

The wind whipped against Li Tong as Chen He carried him at high speed, as if it were piercing his flesh and burrowing into his bones. Yet Li Tong didn't feel all that cold... His body had endured the brutal training of Amegakure. He was thin, but remarkably tough.

More than ten minutes later.

"Stop! Wait!" Li Tong suddenly yelled.

"Hm?" Lueying abruptly halted. They were at the edge of the forest, facing a vast open space. A huge lake, more than three hundred meters across, lay in the middle of it!

"Can I take a bath? I'm filthy." Li Tong pointed at the lake.

Chen He looked Li Tong up and down, then let go and nodded. "Go ahead."

Li Tong charged toward the lake like a dog off its leash, stripping as he ran. Since it was just him and Chen He here, both men, he didn't bother to be modest.

This might have been the best bath Li Tong had ever taken.

He'd never been this dirty before.

Chen He walked to the lakeshore and turned his back. They were both male, but he had no particular interest in watching a boy bathe. It was just weird... Li Tong was already splashing around in the lake, scrubbing himself vigorously. Every so often, he even ducked underwater and held his breath. The lake was naturally clear, its water pristine, and Li Tong was having the time of his life.

"You have five minutes," Chen He suddenly said from the shore.

"Five minutes isn't enough to get clean..." Li Tong swam around in the lake.

"You have five minutes," Chen He repeated.

"Uh... What am I supposed to wear? My old clothes were torn. I can't wash up and then put those filthy rags back on, can I? I'm a Konoha Ninja now."

Chen He glanced back at the tattered clothes Li Tong had left by the lake. They were indeed filthy, with plenty of rips, mud, and bloodstains.

"Wait here. Don't wander off. It's safe here, but if you go wandering, you might trigger one of the forest's traps and die." Chen He spoke in a low voice. He swept his arm, and a gust of wind lifted the tattered clothes from the ground and carried them into his hands. Then he disappeared in a blur.

He took the tattered clothes with him.

Maybe he was trying to stop Li Tong from getting dressed and running away.

But Li Tong didn't mind. He'd only asked Chen He to fetch clothes so he could wash a little longer. He had no desire to run around naked.

"Ah, that feels good... I'm so clean..." The lake was vast, and as Li Tong washed, he eventually reached the middle. As a magician who often performed underwater, Li Tong was an excellent swimmer. The water in the middle of the lake might have been five or six meters deep, but he floated easily on the surface.

A few minutes later.

Li Tong had had enough fun in the middle of the lake and was about to swim back to shore when he spotted something beneath the clear water, down on the lakebed. He took a deep breath and plunged downward!

There were fish on the lakebed.

Li Tong scattered the school and swam all the way down to a patch of thick aquatic plants. Only then could he make out what the glinting object was: a katana... He had no idea who had left it there.

The blade had been at the bottom of the lake for who knew how long, yet it was still as bright as new.

Li Tong grabbed the hilt and swam toward the shore.

Not long after Li Tong dove to the lakebed, on the grassy bank on the lake's western shore...

Whoosh!

A whirlwind suddenly rose, and a girl about nine years old appeared out of nowhere, her hands held together in a Hand Seal. The wind brushed past her, and her fiery red hair fluttered like leaping flames.

Her eyes were red, her expression sorrowful, and tear tracks still marked the corners of her eyes.

"Grandma Mito..." The girl was close to tears. She walked forward a few steps, then sat on the grassy slope by the lake, hugged her knees, and stared blankly at the calm water without saying a word.

Whoosh!

A tall figure appeared behind the girl like a ghost. He wore a black robe and a mask: a Konoha Anbu Ninja.

"Lord Shenzhu, you... Grandma Mito, is she really going to..." the girl began, but she couldn't finish. She wiped away her tears.

"Everyone dies eventually. Lord Mito is going to pass away at an advanced age. You could say she's had a good end," the Anbu Ninja known as Lord Shenzhu rasped.

"But... I don't want her to. I haven't even... I..." The girl was sobbing.

Suddenly!

Ripples spread across the lake about ten meters from shore. Shinsuke immediately sensed something was wrong. His hand tightened around the hilt at his waist, drawing the blade halfway from its sheath.

Splash!

Water burst into the air.

"Ptooey!" Li Tong rose from the lake near the shore and spat out a mouthful of water. He wiped his face vigorously, but the moment his fingers passed before his eyes, his body froze. Through the gaps between his fingers, he saw the red-haired girl sitting with her knees bent on the grassy slope.

The girl's eyes had gone wide as she stared in horror at the naked man with a sword who had suddenly appeared in front of her.

Their eyes met!

Li Tong was stunned.

The girl was stunned too.

It was as if the air had been sucked away. The whole scene froze.

"Ah! Perverted murderer!!!" The girl clutched her head and let out a piercing scream that nearly burst Li Tong's eardrums.

At the same time, as Li Tong's eyes focused, he saw the girl's identity information.

Name: Kushina Uzumaki

Identity: Student at the Ninja Academy in Konohagakure, successor to the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

Reputation: 0

Relationship: Hostile